We have wonderful new options today, including even strong products from China. I recently purchased a Patterson Geyer, and frankly it was impossible to buy a horn of this quality level in the 1980s, with a beautiful sound and no funky notes! The technical advancement is that now many makers are capable of making horns far over the level of traditional factory horns.
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MANY grad students back then were playing Holtons and the like.
#Art of french horn playing latest professional#
My two own major professors played horns a professional would never consider using today Verne Reynolds at Eastman played a stock King Eroica (!) and Michael Hatfield at IU played a Lawson upgraded Holton 180 with a drilled-out Holton mouthpiece! Your only options back then were tired old Geyers and Kruspes (often with real issues - bad notes, bad intonation, bad ergonomics), factory horns by the likes of Conn and Holton (“sounds like a Holton” was not typically made as a positive comment), and also the very heavy and distinctive (but well made) Lawson horns, now off the market for some time.
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Back then, honestly, a lot of horns used even by professionals were not real good. One generally positive “real talk” topic would be the horns of today compared to the 1980s. I have several examples in our French horn world that I want readers to consider. We won’t see the potentials of the future of the French horn until we address complacency and demand superior products. Horn players are not usually so direct, but “complacency” and “lack of demand for superior products” are exactly our problems too. This isn’t my own gut opinion, but rather feedback I consistently hear from manufacturers and leaders in the hobby. It’s a lack of demand for superior products. I think the biggest thing holding the hobby back is complacency with the status quo. We already have the technology to produce some game-changing products and systems. Technological and manufacturing capability certainly is one, but it plays much less of a role than you might think. There are two barriers to advancement in our hobby. One featured article in that special issue was “The Future of Model Railroading,” and under the topic of “barriers” we read that
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The horn is not my only interest (no!), and notably they recently passed their 1,000th issue (since 1934). Or is it?īefore getting to some thoughts on this topic, I would like to quote a passage from an article to set the context of the discussion, from, believe it or not, Model Railroader magazine.
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Aside from music, Amanda's interests include animals, reading and Tudor history.One thought I have heard (and have repeated myself) is that this is a “golden age” for the French horn. Recent opportunities have included playing with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Concert Orchestra and English Pops Orchestra. She studied the horn at postgraduate level at Trinity College of Music and since then has been enjoying a varied and challenging career as a freelance horn player. At the age of 16 Amanda started learning the French Horn and although she continued her singing through the choral scholarships she held at Royal Holloway, University of London and St Martin-in-the-Fields, it was horn playing that Amanda wanted to pursue as a career. For the following 10 years she toured the country singing in various cathedrals with many different choirs, whilst also developing her skills on the piano and organ. Qualifications: Trinity College of Music (Postgraduate)īiography: Amanda began her musical education at the age of 6, when she joined the local Church choir and started piano lessons.